China’s economic growth story has rapidly turned from one underpinned by productivity gains to one engineered by inflationary policies, and the quality of growth has suffered considerably as a result. Several years of poor capital allocation will have to be unwound eventually, and with the global economy stuttering in the second half of 2011, Rahul… [Read more]
Iran’s economy is not entirely coruscating. The government’s subsidy reform programme, international sanctions, and rising political risk all bode ill for the Islamic Republic’s macroeconomic outlook. Nonetheless, my colleagues and I believe that there may still be pockets of growth potential. Indeed, although our 2011 real GDP growth forecast stands at a paltry 1.2%, we… [Read more]
Today, in Business Monitor Online: Governments across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are facing a massive demographic challenge as large, rapidly growing young populations enter the workforce over the coming years. Failure to invest in labour-intensive infrastructure projects or make necessary reforms to employment law in an effort to stimulate job creation could… [Read more]
Business Monitor International (BMI) has just published a Special Report examining the economic consequences of Japan’s March 11, 2011, earthquake. The report analyses the following topics: The economic consequences for Japan The impact of the quake on global financial markets The impact on global commodity prices The impact on Japan’s infrastructure sector The impact on… [Read more]
China’s 12th Five Year Plan announced this month contains few surprises. The bulk of the targets for the 2011-2015 period set out for different industries have already been leaked over previous months. If anything, the government’s economic strategy as laid out in the new plan justifies Business Monitor International’s expectation that there will be an… [Read more]
A week after a largely-peaceful independence referendum in southern Sudan set the stage for the creation of Africa’s newest state, many questions remain over the future of the country’s critical oil industry. As a result of Western sanctions against the government in Khartoum and a precarious security situation, the country has long been off the… [Read more]
Ongoing efforts by Turkmenistan to cultivate stronger political and economic relationships with countries beyond the Central Asian region are supportive of my Business Monitor colleagues’ long-held view that the government would seek out a more balanced and diversified foreign policy over the long run. This has been exemplified in the past few months following a… [Read more]
